shem_whistler Posted October 3, 2004 Report Share Posted October 3, 2004 I've never been very good at pigeon-holing things into different genres, so I was hoping for thoughts on this. The Mask of Zorro was on tv today and It started me thinking about putting him into Hero Terms and then I started considering genres, would you consider Zorro to be a pulp character. He seems to me to fit that style as he has similar traits to Indiana Jones who I would consider to be a pulp character. But the year doesn't match my perception of the pulp genre which is a circa 1920's detective story. So is my perception of pulp correct? Is pulp a style or a set period of time? Cheers Shem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted October 3, 2004 Report Share Posted October 3, 2004 Re: Question on genres "From 1919 through 1959, the Zorro adventures from Mr. Johnston McCulley would deliver excitement and adventure to millions of fans and create one of the most internationally famous heroes of all time." Definately the Pulp Era and definately published as a Pulp. At the same time the pulps had numerous subgenres. Zorro would be Swashbuckling Pulp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted October 3, 2004 Report Share Posted October 3, 2004 Re: Question on genres I've never been very good at pigeon-holing things into different genres, so I was hoping for thoughts on this. The Mask of Zorro was on tv today and It started me thinking about putting him into Hero Terms and then I started considering genres, would you consider Zorro to be a pulp character. He seems to me to fit that style as he has similar traits to Indiana Jones who I would consider to be a pulp character. But the year doesn't match my perception of the pulp genre which is a circa 1920's detective story. So is my perception of pulp correct? Is pulp a style or a set period of time? Cheers Shem Both, but an incredbily varied set of styles. Lovecraft wrote for Weird Tales, as did Robert E. Howard. The early science fiction works of Asimov, Bradbury and DeCamp were published in the pulps, as were the mysteries of Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler. The pulps were the origins of such genres as dark fantasy and superheroes (The Shadow predates the original Batman comics by over a decade.). The principal characteristss of the pulps were that they were produced cheaply, they sold to mass audiencesm, and the writers weren't paid very much. One of the simplest explanations for Lovecraft's long-winded writing style is that the more words he churned out the more likely he was to eat the next week. Crisp prose was not exactly valued by pulp editors, and the aulity of many of the lesser pulp writers was dismal. We only remember the names of the very best writers of the period -- the rest are deservedly forgotten. Strangely, though, the stuff that came out of the pulps has endured in the public memory longer than the "literary" fiction of the same era. Steinbeck and Hemingway are mainly read in schools, and few pick up The Great Gatsby as pleasure reading of their own free will. But people still read Lovecraft and Asimov and are greatly influenced by them. If you want to see the pulp sensibility today, read Stephen King, who would have been one of Lovecraft's circle of correspondets and "disciples" had they been contemporaries. And much contemprary science fiction is unapologetic about its pulp roots; for example, Honor Harrington and The Stainless Steel Rat are very pulp characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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